I want to be your protector
by Pearlislove
Summary: Garnet doesn't understand why she has to be Pearl's new Rose; someone Pearl stupidly will risk her life for at any given moment. Pearl doesn't understand why Garnet can't be her new Rose; One she can serve and protect at any given moment. Then they get to talk. Rated T for kissing and swear words


"That could have gone _a lot_ better." Garnet stated flatly as she, Amethyst and Pearl returned from their latest mission, appearing on the warp pad in a flash or brilliant blue light. Upon hearing these words, Pearl visibly cringed and let out a small breath of air. She was well aware it was her fault that what Garnet just said had sounded as if it was carved from ice, but Pearl also found that she had a hard time feeling as guilty as she should when the big wound on her shoulder was covering the palm of her hand, which she was pressing hard against it until she could get hold of a proper bandage, in a sticky blue substance that Pearl long ago had learned to identify as a sign of a serious injury by human measurements.

"Sorry Garnet… I really tried to...ya know, hold Pearl back" Amethyst mumbled, glancing over at Pearl, who had now sat down on the edge of the platform, frowning from the pain her wound was obviously causing her. The statement was followed by a few moments of silence, all until the familiar voice of a baby crying was heard. The sound brought Pearl out of her stupor and she immediately got up from where she was sitting, her maternal instincts all but taking over, and only stopped as she was literally lifted into the air by Garnet, Amethyst running pass the both of them and up to the upper floor to tend to the boy's needs instead.

"Garnet, please! Let me down!" Pearl wailed as she was carried high in the air above the powerful fusion's head, not willing to admit that she actually felt a bit of relief when Garnet still didn't put her down so she'd walk on her own (which she wasn't even sure she could do, with the light headed feeling slowly filling up her mind).

When Garnet had made her way to the bathroom, she finally lowered Pearl a bit, making sure she didn't bump her head in the door and gently but firmly placing her on the toilet, rising to her full height again in order to get medical supplies from the cabinet above the sink.

"You know the drill, Pearl. Injuries before babysitting duties." Garnet commented softly, her voice much less cold and icy as she continued to search in the cabinet for the supplies she needed to tend to Pearls injured shoulder.

"I know, I know, but I just Love Steven so much… plus I'm the responsible one here!" Pearl sighed.

As a response to this, Garnet just shook her head and continued her search. Unbeknown to her, however, Pearl watched the fusion with amusement as she looked through the cabinet. It had only been a few thousand years since Garnet had decided to become a Perma-Fusion, and old habits were hard to break. Because of this, Pearl often caught Garnet standing on her toes and stretching her arm when she was reaching something high up, and if you really looked real close, you could sometimes even see her being down on her knees or just bending her knees slightly, as if she forgot she was almost double the size of her two parts, Ruby and Sapphire. Just thinking of her friend's odd behaviour sometimes made Pearl smile and almost completely forget the pain and light-headed feeling the wound was leaving her with.

"Pearl, let me look at the wound now…." Garnet began, grabbing the one of her hands that were covering the wound, and in doing so surprising Pearl so much that she reacted on pure instinct and tried to get up and back away, which in the small and limited space they were currently situated in resulted in her falling over the edge and down into the bathtub, hitting her already injured shoulder somewhere along the way.

"PEARL! Are you okay?!" Garnet quickly rushed over to the tub, grabbing Pearl and lifting her up, also taking the opportunity to look at the wound when Pearl wasn't covering it with her hand anymore, only to discover with some sort of grim satisfaction that it wasn't worse than she'd expected it to be, but also that it was still rather bad in comparison to many of the injuries the gems would occasionally get on particularly hard missions...not to talk about that the encounter with the side of the bathtub was causing it to leak quite some sticky blue liquid on top Garnet's hands and Pearl's clothes.

"I'm fine Garnet...just a bit lightheaded and...Gah!" Pearl screamed as Garnet ripped apart and removed her top, leaving her with nothing on her body besides her tights and a minimalistic bra, the whole situation painting Pearls face blue with embarrassment. Garnet, however, was seemingly unfazed as she proceeded to remove her own clothes on the upper part of her body in an attempt to not get any blood on the attire as she carefully put on a compress and a clean white bandage on top of the wound.

Pearl, of course, would normally have protested against both that the women beside her was tending to the wound AND removing her clothes in front of her, ensuring her she could do it herself and there was no need for her to meddle, nor to remove her tight top, but when she raised her voice to speak she once again found that the strain of the whole battle against the corrupted gem, as well as her injury, had drained her so to the point where she didn't mind letting Garnet do it anymore, fearing that it wouldn't be done proper if she tried herself anyway. Besides, she had never _really_ opposed to the hot fusion removing everything but sports bra, pants and panties anyway...

"Thanks for helping me Garnet" Pearl said quietly, partly because she always felt flustered around Garnet, and even more so when the hot fusion was bent over her, topless and giving Pearl a good view down the cleavage on her sports bra, and partly because her exhaustion had also robbed her of most of her voice and the quiet whisper therefore turned out to be the best the young gem had to offer. "That fight really drained me, I think"

Garnet sigh, standing up and giving Pearl an entirely _new view,_ showing off her well trained stomach but not giving the other gem much time to enjoy the sight, as the words she spoke soon refocused Pearls currently limited consciousness and focus.

"I really need to talk with you, Pearl. About what happened today." Her voice was soft and gentle, almost pleading as she said it, even going as far as to remove her shades to show two of her three eyes, the legendary third being closed as it rested, allowing Garnet to focus on the present. "What you did was reckless, and almost cost us the mission. It could have cost us _you_ , Pearl!"

"I did what was necessary! I helped you! Why can't you see that? It would have been great, IF I had got to carry through with it!" Pearl retorted, clearly aggravated by the other gem's accusations even though she must at least to some extent have realised the danger in her plan, standing up and making a new top appear of her skinny body before marching out the bathroom door in that incredibly stuck up, 'I know I'm always right' way that only she could do.

Garnet felt angry. The heated discussions and Pearl's persistent refusal to reflect on the matter from anyone's point of view but her own was starting to get to Ruby, who was slowly taking more and more control over Garnet with the help of her frustrated feelings, and Sapphire was having a hard time keeping the balance between the two of them.

Grumbling and completely ignoring her top still laying on the bathroom floor, Garnet followed Pearl out the door to the living room. She was so wrapped up in inner discussions and sorting through possible futures that she didn't even remember that she was topless herself until she came outside and heard Pearls shrill cry.

"GARNET!" Pearl cried, obviously very offended by the shameless though unintentional display, despite that she hadn't seem to mind it minutes ago. She was holding one hand over Amethysts eyes and using the other to press Steven against her chest, Amethyst seemingly being the only one having something against it.

"Peeeeaaaarl!" Amethyst whinned. "Uncover my eyes! I wanna see..whatever it is!"

"No! I will not let you watch until Garnet" She gave Garnet a look that probably would have been enough to kill her, if looks could kill. "Put on some clothes!"

Garnet frowned, not being able to hold back her instincts and bare her teeth at Pearl, challenging her to put herself up against the authority Rose left Garnet with again.

"I will put on clothes when you agree to talk to me!" She hissed, despite her anger not forgetting what caused this whole situation in the first place.

"I am talking to you!" Pearl says stubbornly, pulling her hand closer to Amethyst's face as the smaller Crystal Gem tried to push it away.

"Not about the mission!" Garbet screamed, Ruby completely losing her temper inside her head and taking over her consciousness without asking for approval from any other the two other parts. She could feel Sapphire already trying to restore the balance, but she was outmatched, and the sudden collision between the elements was leaving Garnet unstable. "You don't think I noticed? You're doing the **exact same thing** you did with Rose with me and I **will not** accept that!"

After saying those words, Garnet noticed that her vision was rapidly growing darker and she had gone numb in most of her limbs, Ruby and Sapphire's voices slowly dying out along with her own. She was going to defuse, she was sure of it, but she managed to force herself to keep it together just long enough to catch Pearl's reply:

"That is my choice to make and _nothing_ that you should even care about!" Pearl growled angrily, tears already gathering in her eyes. Without hesitation she handed the tiny infant in her arm to Amethyst, who'd had her eyes uncovered, and sent them both on their way, away from her and Garnet's feud. This was nasty business they were dealing with, she knew that, and the last thing the slender gem wanted to do was get their adopted sister of sort caught in the crossfire…

Therefor, Pearl was flooded with feelings of horror and dread, but also relief and satisfaction over that she got Amethyst on her way when she did, as she watched the powerful fusion violently defusing in front of her, the two smaller parts that she was made of getting thrown across the room in their opposite directions.

For what felt like an eternity, the whole room fell into absolute silence. Pearl was trying to comprehend just what she had done, and the two now defused gems were trying to recover from both having hit their heads against the walls of the house. But the relatively peaceful moment didn't last long.

In a split second, Ruby had gotten up on her feet and rushed over to Pearl, standing by her legs and screaming her heart out without even noticing the burn marks she was leaving on the floor.

"What the actual fuck Pearl?!" She bellowed, her range causing Pearl to, purely instinctively, step back and take out her spear from her gem as the small conundrum continued to scream. "You're trying to kill yourself for us, and THAT, I'd call our freaking business!"

"No! It's _My_ decision, and I want _you_ to respect that!" Pearl protested, waving her spear in front of the other gem and daring the hot head to come closer.

"It's really not, Pearl." Sapphire cut in, her rage as naturally subtle as her very being, but still very evident in the rapidly decreasing temperatures and the chunks of ice that was slowly starting to spread across the walls of the new built beach house.

"YES IT IS!" Pearl repeated, waving her spear in front of her, too, but Sapphire could see how her body was starting to tremble and her voice no longer held the same confidence it had earlier. All Sapphire had to do to win the argument was to give her one of her usual cold and sensible arguments, but the still aggravated Ruby beat her to it with her own furious reply.

"Why do you have to be so fucking defected?!" She said, frustration and anger making her forget to think about her word choice. "Can't you, just for once, function like your supposed to and follow our orders?!"

Pearl froze. Her whole body just stopped. Those bright blue orbs of hers that Sapphire always found unimaginable beauty instead filled with an unimaginable fear as she whimpered, her spear disappearing as she bent down against the floor and shielded her face, obviously awaiting to be hit by something or someone.

Sapphire felt even more furious as she watched the scene unfold before her. This was not what she had wanted. She had tried to forced Ruby to keep her calm, to create some sort of balance, but it had all been for naught in the end. Just like Sapphire, Ruby was tired of always seeing Pearl throwing away her life in favour of someone else, always acting as the most loyal of Pearl would on Homeworld. They both wanted Pearl to understand what she had, and to start making use of the many opportunities earth offered, but their methods was different.

Sapphire was cool and collected

Ruby was hot headed and vulgar

Ruby had gone too far, not thinking of her wording in the way she should have, and now Pearl was hunched at their feet, her face painted with terror and pain as she probably remembered every time she had been called 'Defected' before, causing her endless pain that Sapphire unfortunately knew she was only seeing the beginning of.

"That's enough Ruby!" Sapphire snapped, sitting down beside Pearl and slowly dragging her glove clad hands through the pale gems short hair and down her back, remembering seeing Rose Quartz do the same many times before when the slender gem had anxiety attacks and hoping that the familiar touch and motions would calm her down. "Hush, sweetie, it's okay. You're on earth now, far from anyone that'll hurt you…"

First, Pearl didn't react to any of what Sapphire did you said, and when Ruby, who had calmed down quite some and now felt more guilty than anything, lay her heated hands on Pearls lower back the pale gem only moved her body slightly and gave a soft, gentle sound that the two other gems assumed was sign of that she was enjoying the heat Ruby was spreading through her thin body, but nothing more. Not having any other choice, Ruby and Sapphire continued what they were doing and hoping it would eventually be enough for Pearl to recover.

"You're not Rose" Pearl whispered, so quietly and so sudden that the two gems first didn't hear what she was saying.

"Pearl?" Ruby asked with all the concern and pleasantness she could muster. "Pearl are you okay?"

"You're not Rose" Pearl repeated, her voice already thick with tears she was trying to suppress. "But you're someone bigger than me, someone more important, and that, is all I need to function."

Slightly confused, Sapphire and Ruby moved over to give room for Pearl to sit up properly as the slender gem continued to whimper, her bright blue eyes spilling over with tears and her hands twitching nervously.

"I'm really sorry." Pearl whimpered, hiding her swollen tear drenched face behind her hands in shame. "I know you don't want me being this way, but sometimes it feels like I don't have a choice. I **have** to be this way, and I **have** to do this, because it's all I know how."

As Pearl's confession was met with an echoing silence, the slender gem started crying once more, feeling destroyed from the inside out and being one hundred percent convinced that what she said had forever ruined her relationship to the other gems, and they would most likely force her to leave the temple and the town, never to see any of them again.

Being so caught up in imagining the most horrible of futures for herself, Pearl didn't notice the brilliant white light filling up the room, or the towering giant of a women walking up beside her. First when the larger fusion wrapped one arm around the smaller gems waist, putting her other hand on Pearl's swollen cheek and using it to gently force her head to the side so their eyes could meet , did the later realise she wasn't going to be abandoned.

"It's okay Pearl." Garnet whispered affectionately, lowering her hand from Pearl's chin and instead wrapping it too around the others waist. "We'll help you learn what you can do, eventually."

"Thank you." Pearl answered, wrapping her arms around the other gem's neck and pressing closer, enjoying the unnatural warmth radiating from Garnets body and her strong, secure hold of Pearls small frame. She felt peaceful. Suddenly, she felt Garnet pressing her face closer to Pearl's, her lips gently brushing against the others before connecting in a real kiss that tasted of salty oceans and moist djungel.

After the first kiss between the two gems had ended, Garnet tried to push their lips together a second time, but Pearl turned her head away in a manner that screamed for Garnet to stop, her bony hands weakly pushing at the other gems chest in an attempt to free herself.

"Did I do something wrong? Did...did you not like it?" Garnet asked, her normally neutral voice tinged with concern as she let go off Pearl and allowed her to step away, feeling utterly stupid.

"No, no! I...I liked it, but…" Pearl trailed off, those blue orbs of hers focusing on Garnets massive hands while her own hands twitched when she nervously rubbed them together. It was all Garnet needed to catch on.

"It's Ruby and Sapphire, isn't it?" Garnet asked, showing off the two gems in her palms and earning a weak nod from Pearl.

"You're already **a relationship.** " Pearl mouthed, her voice all but a whisper as her honest blue eyes kept staring at the blue and the red gem in each of Garnet's palms. "You shouldn't need me to...to third wheel your relationship!"

"B..but...it's not **my** relationship, I **am** the relationship. Ruby and Sapphire got each other, but I'm still alone!" Garnet explained, silently wondering why she was so desperate to convince Pearl that they could be together when she didn't even knew why she kissed her in the first place.

"Really?" Pearl looked surprised but none the less happy and just a bit hesitant.

Garnet nodded, and with the help of Ruby and Sapphire mentally pushing her, she rushed forward and grabbed Pearl by the waist, her other arm slipping in under her slim gem's legs as Pearl was hoisted into the air by the fusion, only to be catched a moment later and firmly pressed against Garnet's chest, where she settled, deciding she was more than happy to rest there for the time being, at the same time feeling quite happy and content once she'd calmed down after being flunged into the air.

"I love you Pearl, and no amount of love between Ruby and Sapphire will ever come to replace it!" Garnet smiled, barely noticing as the tears started streaming down her chin, her third eye opening up to beautiful visions of a love-filled future between the two, and as she looked closer her eye could even see one where she and Pearl… just as she was going to explore the particular future she noticed, she instead noticed that it wasn't her alone that was crying, as Pearl had started to cry too, baffling Garnet with the fact that she still had tears left despite how many she had already shed that day, and made Granet laugh. "Seriously Pearl, how do you even…"

Garnet was not able to finish her question as Pearl rose herself to a sitting position in Garnets steadfast hold, gripping with her bony hands around Garnet's broad shoulders for support and pressing her lips against the taller gems in a passionate kiss that Garnet was happy to return, pressing Pearl's body as close to her own as she dared to without feeling the was risk she was slowly crushing the pale gem, the passion between the two shutting out the rest of the world as they each enjoyed what the other one had to offer and refused to stop, all until...

 ***riiing***

"I got it"

With a sight, Pearl untangled from Garnet and jumped down on the floor, flinching slightly at the impact when her feet hit the ground, but didn't pretend it happened. Straightening her back and taking on a serious expression, she quickly walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the phone.

"Pearl Crystal Gem, who...am I talking to?" Pearl answered, internally cursing herself over how stupid she sounded.

"Hey Pearl, it's Greg! I...uh… I was just wondering why Ame and Steven can't be in the temple? is something going on?" Greg asked on the other line.


End file.
